Ochem: Sugar Chemistry & Difficulty of Destroyer

[PD3]

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Hello all,

For those of you who have taken the DAT. Did you have much sugar chemistry. I have had little exposure to it and don't know if I should focus that much on it.

Also, I was wondering what people thought of the difficulty of the destroyer ochem section compared to the real thing. There are a number for four and five step synthesis problems that can get tough. Does the real thing have synthesis problems this large? I hope not. I have read others say the Kaplan subject tests are tough, so is it safe to say that both Kaplan and Destroyer are a little more difficult than the real thing. Either way, I will work through both because I would rather be over prepared than under!

Thanks.

 

[Forum Lurker]

I don't really remember there being any carbohydrate questions on the DAT. If so, there was probably only one easy one seeing how nothing stands out in my mind. At the same time, I certainly don't want to say that you should completely ignore carbohydrates. Make sure you've got the basics down anyway.

However, I definitely remember that there were at least one or two problems that involved 3-4 steps. So you absolutely have to know your reactions. There was one multiple-step reaction question I remember that showed a starting molecule and a series of reactants and asked what the overall product would be. There was also a question that gave a starting molecule, showed the product and asked what reactants in what order would give those results. Still, I don't think that even the large reaction questions were very hard. I never got Destroyer so I don't know what to say about that, but I think Topscore was pretty accurate in terms of difficulty. Good luck.